Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a personal digital assistant (PDA), in particular to a PDA for interacting with personal contacts. The present invention also relates to a method of interacting with personal contacts using a PDA.
Description of the Related Art
PDAs currently enable their users to perform various functions. For example, PDAs can be used to organise events (for example by providing an electronic diary); connect to the internet; listen to music; take and/or view photographs; watch videos; provide directions (for example through GPS) and produce and edit documents. PDAs can also be used to store contact details, such as postal addresses, e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers. As such, the PDAs can contain an electronic address book. Typically, PDAs can be used to view and select contacts to interact with, and can allow the user of the PDA to interact with the selected contact, for example by telephone or e-mail.
The present invention recognises that contacts in an address book of a PDA are presently arranged in an arbitrary order. For example, they may be arranged in alphabetical order. However, the user of the PDA is not provided with any additional information about the current status of their contacts.
The invention is described herein in relation to a PDA. However, the invention may comprise, and/or be used with or applied to any electronic device. In particular, the invention may comprise, and/or be used with or applied to, any mobile and/or handheld device, such as, for example, a smartphone, a netbook or a laptop computer.